BROADCASTER

Sir Michael Parkinson, 82, recalled at the St Bride’s memorial service for his friend, Fleet Street editor Robin Esser, that they became the youngest captains in the British Army during their National Service in the 1950s. Robin said he was the younger ‘by a few days’, said Parkinson. ‘Then when Robin died last November, aged 84, I discovered he was older than me by two years. Never trust a journalist!’ Publisher Christopher Ward, 75, spoke eloquently at the service for his friend, Robin, explaining afterwards: ‘It helps that I’ve made speeches on cruise ships about my grandfather, who was on the Titanic.’ Jock Hume was a violinist who, with his colleagues, played all five verses of Nearer, My God, To Thee while the ship sank in 1912.